Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Big Drums

Uzume Taiko derives from the Japanese word for "big drum", and from the goddess of laughter, Ame No Uzume No Mikoto .
This goddess is known as the Heavenly Alarming Female who , according to legend, first began taiko drumming.
Heavenly Alarming Female...I like the ring of that. That's the kind of powerful happy goddess archetype a girl like me likes to identify with.
I liked this Canadian drumming group a lot. Jeff, me, Kim and baby Zoe heard Uzume Taiko in concert as part of last week's Cumberland Lantern Festival performances.
I missed the flamenco dancers on Monday alas, but I'm glad I didn't miss the Big Drums.
Uzume Taiko was loud, fun, energetic, and combined tradition drumming techniques with their own choreographies, mask work, martial arts and humour.
As well as big drums, gongs, and wooden flutes, this group can also play a mean musical trio with Frying Pans.
And Zoe, aged only eleven months, seemed very pleased with her very first Taiko drum concert. Kim was a little worried Zoe might be fussy, or the drumming might scare her, but on reflection she noted that, as daddy is a musician, Zoe's quite used to musical noise.
Actually, I've seen her with her own drum-sticks in hand...




7 comments:

Eric said...

She looks kind of creepy, like someone I once saw in a dream. Or probably a nightmare.

Pol* said...

I have wanted to see one of those Taiko drum concerts since I have heard of it..... in Cumberland they have it, and the big city of Nanaimo???? Baah- this place is a cultural black hole! If they did come here, there were probably 6 poster distributed somewhere ambiguous.

Jo said...

I love Taiko drums. I had a Japanese friend, Kaz, who played Taiko drums, and there is quite a history to them.

Lucky you!.

Josie

Mz.Elle said...

Ooooh I love to see that!
We have no such thing,up in the sticks but one day I'll be back in civilization!
I'm glad you had such a great time!

Tai said...

I think I saw them in Vancouver a few years back.
They were wonderful, that's for sure!

BostonPobble said...

Heavenly Alarming Female. Yeah, I can groove on that.

kimber said...

Great pictures, Spider! What a fantastic evening!